12th June 2012
__NOINDEX__ WELLS WAY' TRIANGLE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION' Minutes of Committee Meeting held on Tuesday 12th June 2012 Committee members: Jenny Bentall (Chair), Richard Llewellyn-Davies (General Secretary), David Frost (Treasurer), Astred Niggeloh, Aston Martin, Claire Sharpe, ZLT, Kapie Mzumara. In Attendance: Cllr Mark Williams, Noel Ene (Council Housing Officer Southwark Council), Jo Parker, Suisie Giles, Donnachadh McCarthy. 1. 'Apologies:' Andrew Osborne, Mike Morris, Emily Woodhouse, Tessa Brown, Tom Tibbits (Deputy Chair), Jenny Jones, Christophe Geurard, Rachel Goldsmith, =2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting held on the 8th May 2012 = The minutes of the meeting were agreed. 3. Matters Arising Grants Jenny has been asked to get in touch with Andrea Allen, the senior project manager for Cleaner, Greener, Safer allocation of £15,800 regarding our enquiries about how to spend it. Mark Williams has managed to get us a further grant to support of community planting – Greening the Triangle – type activity. The amount of this grant is still to be decided. The Rainbow Street flats Rubbish still continues to be a problem outside the council block on Rainbow street. Noel has also been working with the residents. He is hoping to create a new space for bin storage inside the block. There is a site next to the Rainbow Street block that is frequently being used for fly tipping. Mark has asked the police to do spot checks on vans passing through the area. It is hoped that this will put people off using the area for fly-tipping. Residents should report suspicious vans to the police. Jenny has been in contact with a resident in the Rainbow Street block of flats. He is in agreement with us about the problems and keen to work with the Association to explore resolutions. The problem of street drinking near the block was also discussed. We are keen to plant spiky plants near the wall in front of the block to stop people gathering by the wall for street drinking. The ‘Bricklayers Arms’ block of flats The bins outside the new block, formerly the Bricklayers Arms, is also a problem. The bins get left outside on a Monday and seem to be becoming a public rubbish dump. This is the corner where we want to have trees and planters. Actions Jenny will continue to contact the resident within the Rainbow Street block of flats to continue to tackle the issues. Mark will look into the possibilities for enforcing more community friendly rubbish collection practises Residents should continue to report this as a problem. =4. Independent Commission on the Future of Council Housing in Southwark= Jenny read out the key points from the General Secretary’s draft submission of evidence to the Independent Commission on the Future of Council Housing. The letter was endorsed by the Committee. Some present wanted the point about height restrictions to be made more strongly and made more specific to our area, in particular the fact that tower blocks overlooking Burgess Park would be detrimental to residents, including council tenants, enjoyment of the park and that more housing could be built where the retail units currently are on the old-Kent road, including on top of Tescos. Mark also commented that the council are expecting to build 1100 new council homes over the next few years using capital receipts from private developers. Actions The general secretary agreed to amend the letter to strengthen the points raised at the meeting. The general Secretary also agreed to copy the final draft to Cllr Mark Williams. 5. Greening the Triangle The Greening the Triangle Day on the 19th May was very successful. At the following vision group meeting on the 31st May the group agreed upon the following key projects. 1) We want to visit other sites that have been taking forward greening or Transition Towns initiatives. 2) The Gardening and food group could now be up to 50 people. Initiatives include, seed swap, garden crawl, window box events and a project to improve front gardens and create a more edible community. 3) The Energy Group will be looking at bulk installations, an investment project, rent a roof, TCC and the school, advice and energy efficiency, free insulation and an eco-energy tariff. 4) The Environment and flooding group will be visiting Boddington Square to look at the greening the streets and flood prevention project with John Kissi from the Council. We are looking for inspiring ways to spend the £25,000 Veolia grant awarded to us. We are also interested in concrete removal and re-greening front gardens. The next meeting of the group will be on Thursday 5th July from 6.30 at 51 Rainbow St. There was some discussion about the possibility of taking up some of the tarmac and concrete. There’s a band of tarmac separating the pavement from the road in Coleman Rd which we think could be removed to make way for grass and additional trees. We also discussed removing the concrete at the boundaries of the playground, in order to put plants in. There was also discussion about whether we could take up pavements in other places to increase the amount of greenery. 6. Planning issues '6.1 The CPZ' There was further endorsement of the green triangle idea. We also agreed to raise the issue of the one year review at the next community meeting. '6.2 Tesco’s floods' Kapie has asked Tescos who is responsible for the, flood prone, lay-by next to Tescos and been given short shrift by their manager. Action Mark agreed to find out who is responsible for the lay-by with a view to examining options for dealing with the flooding. '6.3 The Southampton Way zebra crossing planned for near Tescos' Tescos believe that they have discharged all of their Section 106 arrangements. However the council believe that Tescos are responsible for creating a zebra crossing. Action Mark will continue to pursue this with the council planning officers. '6.4 Reinvigorating the shop fronts on Southampton Way' The electrical surveys are underway at the moment. 11 of the 21 shops on Southampton Way have returned their legal agreements for the shop fronts to be re-vamped. The council will be writing to the remaining shops to encourage them to fill in the legal agreement. If the legal agreements can be signed then we would expect work to begin in November or December. There was also discussion about some of the problem shops on Southampton Way. The new police sergeant for the area will be looking to tackle the problem. Following complaints about late night street drinking outside some of the Southampton Way shops and urinating into people’s gardens enforcement officers have visited some of the shops to remind them of their licensing agreements and obligations. Residents are encouraged to continue to report problem behaviour to the council. 6.5 Potholes down Coleman Rd The problem of potholes down Coleman Rd, especially at the top, was discussed. Coleman Rd has not received any surface maintenance or re-surfacing within living memory. Action Mark has agreed to look into getting Coleman Rd re-surfaced. 6.6 The new bill board and removal of a mature tree on Southampton Way A mature tree appears to have been removed net to the bus stop opposite Tescos on Southampton Way and a new, stand alone, bill board has been erected.. A The committee agreed that these were both unwelcome changes to Southampton Way and that we would like both of them reversed. Action Cllr Mark Williams will look into this issue. We agreed that we want the tree to be re-planted and the poster board removed. 7. Financial Update The balance remains at £2255.75. There is a cheque for £25 that has been sent to Nicholas for using the Hall. The general Secretary submitted receipts for £138 for the payment of a speaker at the Greening the Triangle event and also for the purchase of books to support the Greening the triangle initiative. =8. Any other business = =''8.1 Potential closure of Newent Close'' = Jenny proposed a deputation to Barry Hargreaves about the possibility of closing Newent Close to prevent rat-running. The case was raised that this presents a danger for children and cyclists. However we do not believe that we have a mandate to lobby for this change as it has not been discussed at a large community meeting. The committee agreed that we should pursue ways of consulting people about this as a proposal. Mark recommended writing to Barry asking to meet with him and an appropriate officer of the Council. Mark would like to accompany us to any this meeting. Action Jenny agreed to write to Barry Hargreaves about this issue to arrange a meeting with him and an appropriate council officer. =''8.2 Car break ins'' = Thefts from cars have been increasing within the area. Action Mark will request an increase in patrols from the area sergeant. He will also look into whether a known car breaker has recently been released. =''8.3 Burgess Park'' = Burgess Park is re-opening on the 21st July. This will be a grand opening. The park will include a designated BBQ area. The possibility of a triangle BBQ was raised as a possibility for a future event. 8.4 Wonky table tennis tables in Burgess Park The table tennis tables installed in Burgess Park are still clearly wonky and, therefore, unusable. Action Mark will ask for these to be corrected. '' 8.5 The Camberwell Company and Business network This is a document circulated by the SE5 forum. This looks at getting local businesses together with TRA groups. Action ''We agreed to make the document available to all residents =''8.6 Seux Gardens Residents Association letter'' = The Chair and General Secretary have both been written to by the Seux Gardens residents association asking for donations to fund legal representation at the inquest into the Lakanal House fire. Although they were not directly impacted by the fire they have been represented to date as an interested party but are worried about losing this representation as the fund from which it is being paid is likely to be withdrawn. The committee discussed the possibility of inviting a representative from Seux Gardens Residents Association to a committee meeting to give further details and discuss their case. 8.7 A missing padlock on the traffic gates closing off Coleman Rd to traffic from Wells Way This has been corrected 9. Next meetings: Committee meetings – Tues 12th June, 8pm and Tues 10th July, 8pm The Annual General meeting is planned for September 11th